Joel French, Public Interest Alberta executive director, speaks at a Revenue Reno campaign discussion at Red Deer College Tuesday. About a dozen people attended the event. (Photo by SEAN MCINTOSH/Advocate staff)

WATCH: Alberta’s revenue shortage concerns Central Albertans

Public Interest Alberta hosted the discussion at Red Deer College on Tuesday

Albertans need to be taxed more so public services like education and health care can improve.

That was the message at Public Interest Alberta discussion on the provincial revenue shortage at Red Deer College Tuesday.

Albertans need to talk about raising tax revenue, said Joel French, executive director of Public Interest Alberta, a non-profit, non-partisan organization focused on education and advocacy on public interest issues.

The event was a part of the organization’s Revenue Reno campaign, which aims to protect and revitalize public services in Alberta.

French said to raise tax revenue, the province could introduce a sales tax and make changes to the personal income tax system.

“If we don’t do those things … we’re going to see massive cuts to our education system and our health care system. There’s just no other way the province can go. It’s one or the other; we see big cuts or we raise more revenue,” he said.

French said the Revenue Reno campaign sets out to educate Albertans about this problem.

“If a political party is going to balance the budget, something both major parties are talking about, simply by cutting then what does that mean for our public services?” said French.

The only way politicians are going to make a decision on this is if the citizens understand the issues, he said.

“What are our classrooms going to look like five years from now if we balance the budget by making cuts? What are our hospital wait times going to look like?

“I know, particularly in Red Deer, you don’t want to see less hospital services,” he said.

Dianne Macauly, Red Deer Public Schools trustee, said having a more sustainable source of funding would help improve schools.

“If we had better funding we could allocate that money into making the buildings better for our students, our teachers and or community,” she said.

Macauly said the district received a zero increase in funding this year from the province.

“In reality a zero increase is a decrease because everything else increases,” she said.